Weather and Congressional tax policy were at the forefront of futures traders’ minds on Wednesday and these two factors drove much of the day’s price action. The weather outlooks – favorable for the Corn Belt and dry for the Southern Plains, Europe, and Black Sea – created bearish pressure on new crop corn and allowed wheat futures to follow through on Tuesday’s bullish reversal. The WASDE’s outlook was bearish for wheat, but traders are increasingly focused on deteriorating weather, which has put at least a temporary floor under prices. The other major factor at work in the day’s trade, U.S. tax policy, was directly related to the soyoil market where traders are hopeful that Congress will ext...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.